This morning the Associated Press (AP) reported that there is at least one death in Iraq this morning that is unrelated to either the ongoing occupation by US forces or the controversy over cartoons: a 15-year-old boy is suspected to have died of the bird flu.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the bird flu, it is known as the H5N1 strain, which is similar to the strain from the Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918. Estimates of its fatality rate generally place it above 50%, though some have predicted that the prospective human-human strain has the potential to be as fatal as 95%. Currently, it can only be transmitted from avian animals (birds, often chickens and pigeons) to people, but there is concern that it will mutate into a strain that can be transferred from people to other people.
A separate AP story reports that the St. Jude's Children's Hospital in TN has isolated a protein that they believe makes the flu especially deadly: it has the ability to latch on to important cell processes.
So why am I writing about the flu when there are other conflicts in the world, like the proposed "Holocaust Cartoon Contest?"
Because the vaccines that are being developed right now address the bird-human strain, but if the virus mutates into a human-human strain that can be transferred directly, the change in genetic makeup may be enough to negate the vaccine. In addition, the bird-human flu has been steadily spreading from its locus of origin, leaving approximately 160 confirmed cases in its wake so far.
Also disturbing is the fact that many poor farmers in other nations have had their entire living destroyed (because they raised domestic chickens, for example), because when a case is reported all of the avian livestock in the vicinity needs to be destroyed to protect the local people.
You want to look for a global threat? Try the avian flu.
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well hopefullywe can count on pfeizer to....wait...ount on pfeizer? nope. People, help fund research, especially in poor countries.